A humanitarian wiki, or perhaps an aid worker wiki, has been much discussed.

For example, see the blog post Do you think it's time for a humanitarian wiki? by Paul Currion and the subsequent discussion in the comments.

The existing humanitarian wiki

Note the ways in which Appropedia covers this scope, for example in principles of development and official development assistance, as well as more specific topics such as emergency management, water, sanitation and shelter. The planned country guides will also be of great value to aid workers.

Other examples of relevant content are:

• Community-led total sanitation
• Water supply and purification methods for emergencies
• Info on specific crops and agricultural techniques,
• Food processing e.g. Food processing building design (Practical Action Brief) and Fruit juice processing (Practical Action Brief),
• Pages about organizations, e.g. Full Belly Project),
• Resource/supply data - a simple example is this list of hardware stores in Parras, Mexico but much more sophisticated methods are planned - e.g. see Enabling Innovation,
• All kinds of how-tos, e.g. How to measure water flow),
• More obvious appropriate technology designs (e.g. Home biogas system (Philippine BioDigesters)).

Key issues/FAQ

• Isn't Appropedia about appropriate technology? We need something for humanitarian work.
  • A: Development, aid and all kinds of humanitarian work have always been part of Appropedia's intended scope, and Appropedia is already working very hard on this. Appropriate technology is an important aspect of relief and development work, and happens to be where Appropedia has advanced most rapidly, but non-tech pages such as the principles of development are also growing.
• How is it possible to get emergency workers to share their knowledge? They have no time as they are in the field and overworked.
  • A: No emergency worker works in disaster zones 365 days per year for their whole life. Also, much relevant knowledge is found outside the field of current aid workers. For any wiki, the number of contributors is tiny relative to the readers and potential contributors. This means that just a few people working hard on this - including you if you're willing to click "edit" - can have a real impact through your contributions here.

See also

• Crisis wiki